On the TechTO stage ×4
Network Effect is Your Asset
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Tech Entrepreneurship: The Wildest Ride
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Wondeur AI and Two Small Fish Ventures
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How to Angel Invest | TechTO Founders & Funding
Watch on YouTube ↗First seen on the TechTO stage in 2017. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Eva ↗
Also on the stage ×1
Panels and roundups Eva appeared on.
In their words
Let's start with letter A in asset. It stands for atomic unit. It is the smallest product unit which your users will gather around. Think about Facebook — a post is the atomic unit. Twitter is a tweet. Uber is a ride. And for Wattpad, the atomic unit is a story.
Wattpad did that by importing over 20,000 public domain stories such as Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick onto the platform. The idea is to allow some readers to find some stories to read on our platform and build a habit of reading on Wattpad.
For you to have a business where you don't have people churn, you have to lock them in. So how do you lock them in? It's more than just 'I am cheaper and more bells and whistles' — it's that they found value on your platform they cannot find anywhere else.
More from TechTO ×6
Around the web ×4
Quick answers
What does Eva Lau do now?
She is co-founder and general partner of Two Small Fish Ventures, an early-stage deep tech fund in Toronto she started in 2014 with her husband Allen Lau, who is its operating partner. The firm invests across vertical AI platforms, physical AI, AI infrastructure, advanced computing hardware, and smart energy. In November 2025 she joined the board of directors of Applied Brain Research, one of the fund's portfolio companies.
What did Eva Lau do at Wattpad?
She was head of community. She told TechTO in 2017 that she scaled the community 'from tens of thousands to tens of millions,' and on the TechTO stage in 2023 said she helped build Wattpad from its infancy into a business with hundreds of millions of users. She left before becoming an angel investor, initially backing only network-effect companies.
What is Eva Lau's ASSET framework?
A pattern she drew out of Wattpad and the companies she had backed, presented at TechTO in 2017: network effect equals ASSET. Atomic unit — the smallest product unit users gather around (a post, a tweet, a ride, a story). Seed your supply side. Scale your demand side. Enlarge your network effect coefficient, which she defines as users × frequency of engagement × number of connections. Track your proprietary insight.
What does Eva Lau look for in founders?
Defensibility, and founders who grow past their original job. In 2023 she told TechTO the biggest internal risk to a startup is the founder themselves — getting stuck in the paradigm they started in, as an engineer or a salesperson, and not growing beyond it. On product, she says the test is whether users find value on your platform they cannot get anywhere else.